The Old Testament is God’s picture book. It teaches by type and illustration. We are told in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that “All these things happened unto them as examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the [ages] have come.” There are a great many people who recognize the fact that some things written in the Old Testament were typical but they hesitate to acknowledge that this is true of all. We need to learn the lesson of these words. Some will tell you that the books of the Old Testament, the so-called historical books, are largely made up of Hebrew myths and legends, and we cannot attach any credibility to them, but the Holy Spirit says, “All these things happened….” Therefore, he who believes God accepts the various experiences of Israel as actual history.
In the second place, there are certain typical lessons, which we learn from them. “All these things happened unto them for types.”
The ark going down into the waters of Jordan typified our Lord Jesus Christ going down into the waters of death when He could say, “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Ps. 42:7). By His death on the cross He has annulled him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Through Him the fear of death is gone, and Christians can say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).
The believer is identified with the Lord Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. This comes out very clearly, very beautifully in the present chapter. We are told that when the people were clean passed over Jordan, the Lord gave another command to Joshua. The priests bearing the ark of the covenant still stood in the river bed, but the people had passed over, when God said to Joshua, “Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.”
The twelve stones were to be a memorial of Israel’s deliverance. They were to take up these stones from the river bed and carry them to the other side, and they were to be piled up as a monument that generations to come might look upon them and remember how God delivered His people.
“Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: and Joshua said unto them, Pass ever before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever” (Josh. 4:4-7).
God wanted to preserve this as a testimony. May I say that similarly the two ordinances given to Christian people were intended by God to emphasize these truths. Take the ordinance of baptism, Christian baptism which is set forth as a memorial—“so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” (Rom. 6:3). When a believer is baptized he is bearing testimony to the fact that Christ has died and that he takes his place in identification with Him in His death. God sees every believer dead, buried, and risen with Christ. I hesitate to participate in baptizing anyone if he does not really understand this. Baptism is not a means of salvation; it cannot wash away the filth of the flesh. In baptism a person is bearing witness to his death, burial, and resurrection from the dead through Jesus Christ. The intelligent person being baptized says, “I deserve to die, but Christ died in my stead; therefore His death is my death, and I take my place now in identification with Him. I have died with Him; died to all that He died to as a Man. I have died to the world, to sin in the flesh; I have died to the law; I stand on altogether different ground before God.”
The other ordinance is that of the Lord’s Supper. As we gather about Him to partake of the broken bread and of the cup which represents the body and the precious blood of Christ, we remember that Christ died for us, but that He is now living, and is coming again to take us to be forever with Himself.
When your children ask you, “What mean ye by these ordinances?” we should be prepared to say, “Our Saviour died, and we died with Him; He arose in triumph, and we have been made alive together with Him. Now we are dead to that to which He died, and are called upon to live unto God.” We have this set forth in the twelve stones taken out of the midst of Jordan—resurrection with Christ.
But there was more than that. We read in Joshua 4:9-10, “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priest which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua.”
How that should remind us of that word that the Saviour uttered before He departed to the Father. I say that “word” for in our translation we have three words, “It is finished,” but in the Greek there is only one word. What Jesus cried was tetelestai—“completed,” “finished.” The consummated work of redemption was finished for all those who put their trust in Him.
The twelve stones were set up in the midst of Jordan, and when the priests bearing the ark came up out of the river, the waters flowed back and covered up those twelve stones. There is a lesson for us in this. We can see the infinite grace of God. Christ died for us and now we are dead to the world and all its sin.
That is what the twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan tell us. They say, “I have died with Christ; I no longer belong to the world that crucified Him; I no longer come under its judgment but under grace.” That does not mean that we can be careless in our behavior. As believers we should be more careful than ever as to our conduct. That is what the apostle stresses when he says, “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Again he says, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).
Those twelve stones on the other side in the land of Canaan speak of resurrection with Christ. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). May I try to make this very personal? Have you taken your place in baptism as confessedly in association with our Lord Jesus Christ in His death? Are you living it out? Let me ask you, some of you dear young people who have confessed your faith in Christ in baptism, what does that mean to you? Do you recognize the fact that God now claims you as His own? You should walk absolutely apart from the world and all its joys and idols. That is what God desires for you. When you talk to some people about coming out from the world they will say that they cannot see any harm in this thing and in that thing, and yet their own lives manifest their harmfulness. They are useless Christians; they do not count for God.
Those twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, how they ought to speak to our hearts of the grace of Christ and of what He endured for us. Have you taken your place with Him so that you can say from the heart, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14)?
But you say, “That means giving up so many things.” Yes, but you get so much more in their place. Those twelve stones on the other side of Jordan speak of Christ in resurrection—the blessedness, the happiness, the gladness of heart that comes to the one who is consciously identified with the risen Christ. You will not care for the poor, trivial things of this world if your heart is taken up with Him.
It is precious indeed when one enters into the reality of all this. The hymn writer has expressed it beautifully in the following verses:
Jesus died and we died with Him,
Buried in His grave we lay;
One with Him in resurrection,
Soon with Him in heaven’s bright day.
Death and judgment are behind us,
Grace and glory are before,
All the billows rolled o’er Jesus,
There exhausted all their power.
Excerpted from the author’s commentary on Joshua.
Written by H. A. Ironside